Tune Up Firefox for Research

Tune Up Firefox for Research

Effective online research involves more than just noodling around on the Web (but don't tell your boss). For goofing off, any browser will do. But when you want to collect and manage information, the right tools can speed the task. Firefox's streamlined interface and vast ecosystem of extensions and plug-ins make it an unusually rich research tool. Competitors such as Internet Explorer are still playing catch-up in that department.

No matter which browser you're using, you'll do well to master the native features of the program first. In Firefox, some of the slickest built-in features include:

Tabbed browsing Wheel-click or Ctrl-click any link to open that link in a new tab.

Google searching any selected text Right-click selected text to launch Google in a new tab.

Bookmark all tabs Once you've opened several Web sites in individual tabs, Firefox lets you save the entire group. When you add a folder containing bookmarks to your Links toolbar, it acts like a custom menu of favorite sites.

Open in tabs Reopen the whole group.

Keyword searches Search sites right from the Location Bar. This issue's Firefox tip (right) explains keyword searches.

Live bookmarks Gives you quick access to RSS feed headlines without your having to open the sites that originate them.

For more ambitious research, extensions give you the power to work with information even more effectively. To manage the extensions you already have or to add new ones, choose Tools | Extensions. If you'd just like to browse the Firefox Extensions Collection, go to addons.mozilla.org. First, browse our list of particularly research-friendly extensions, below. If you're not careful, online research can chew up all of your time. But if you trick out Firefox with the right set of extensions and a few shortcuts, you can amass a large amount of information in a jiffy.